Immigration: Amnesty plan a bad idea

But there is a third evil in an amnesty, and that is the effect it has on future legal immigration. Under current law, every one of those 11 million will be able to sponsor family members to immigrate legally. Based upon the 1986 amnesty, on average five legal immigrants were added to the population for each person who received amnesty. So the 11 million could add another 55 million legal immigrants in the next two decades. Is population growth at that level good for the national interest?

The Obama/Gang of Eight proposals promise some sort of workplace enforcement to make sure that illegal aliens are not able to find work. Why should we believe them? The 1986 law promised workplace enforcement but failed miserably. Since then, proposals to improve workplace enforcement, such as E-Verify, a simple system that allows employers to verify employee eligibility, have been opposed by all the same groups that today support amnesty.

To make matters worse, the Obama administration has prohibited any meaningful workplace enforcement. This administration will not allow ICE to arrest and deport illegal workers. The number of employers who have faced criminal sanctions can be counted on one hand. So why should anyone believe promises made by an administration that has gone out of its way to ignore its duty to enforce current law? No immigration reform will work unless we close the workplace. Making E-Verify mandatory for all employers and all current workers would do that, which the president could have done with the stroke of a pen on the first day he took office.